


A Nightingale's Love

by AngelsFallFirst



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25552960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelsFallFirst/pseuds/AngelsFallFirst
Summary: Galliah... is that a thing?Anyway, I wanted to give them a story they deserve ❤(G & K during the happening of the Nightingales)
Relationships: Gallus Desidenius/Karliah
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	A Nightingale's Love

Gallus had not expected to fall in love so fast. Or with an elf. Or to fall for anyone, for all that matters.   
But the Dunmer had totally enchanted him from day one.

It had happened too fast for sure, Gallus didn't even have the time to comprehend what was happening in front of him. He heard screams and shouts and as he got up from his bed and ran to the cistern, Delvin and Gaia were already holding the little Dunmer, who had broken into the guild and who was cursing Talos with a tongue that Gallus never would have expected to hear from a young lady. Then they brought her away, telling her she'd rot in the Ratway Warrens.  
Gallus did not like the idea of locking the Dark Elf away, no matter what she had done. She was obviously a good thief, so why lock her away?  
And then he had an idea.  
"Wait," he called to his guild members and they turned to him.  
Gallus approached them and looked down at the young elf. She was merely twenty of years and had big, purple eyes which looked at him pleading.  
"What's your name?"  
"What do you care?" the Dunmer asked back, her voice soft now. "You're bringing me away anyway."  
"No, I want to give you a chance," Gallus answered with honesty in his voice. "You have quick fingers and a lot of courage to steal from the guild. We would need someone like you in our guild. But therefore I need to know your name."  
Gallus could hear Gaia's gasp but he didn't care. He was the Guildmaster, not her. It wasn't her decision whom to let into the guild.  
"Karliah," the elf now answered quietly. "My name is Karliah Indoril."  
"Welcome to the thieves guild, Karliah," Gallus answered politely.  
And that had been the start of everything.

The next days, Gallus had an eye on Karliah. Not because he didn't trust her, more because he was the only one who did. Everyone treated her differently, since no one had ever managed to break into the Ratway and dared to steal from the guild. Luckily they had caught her before she had escaped. And Gallus longed to know why she had even thought of stealing from them. And how in the name of Mara had she succeeded to break in?  
Gallus often watched her while she was training in lockpicking. As if she needed the training, she was astoundingly good.  
Only after a week Gallus knew that she was faster than Mercer, she picked locks within one blink of the eye and picked pockets just as fast.  
She was more skilled with the bow than Gaia, she shot faster and she never missed a target.  
And she moved quieter than Delvin, no one heard her coming, even if she wasn't sneaking.  
Karliah was a natural, that was clearly visible.  
Now she only needed to become a full member of the guild and interact with the other members.

So one day Gallus sat down next to her during dinner time. She was always alone, since no one wanted to befriend her and Gallus wanted to try it.  
"Who taught you in stealth?" he asked with a friendly voice. He was still scared that Karliah thought they wouldn't accept her down here.  
"My mother," Karliah answered without looking up from her plate.  
"Where is she?" Gallus asked. "I would like to meet her."  
Karliah shook her head.  
"She ... she died a while ago. I didn't expect it, so I never looked for work myself. But she taught me very well, I thought I could survive like this ..."  
"She was a thief, then?" Gallus asked on. "I wonder if I knew her."  
Now Karliah smiled. "I think you did. Her first name was Dralsi."  
"Dralsi - by the Eight, she had a daughter?" Gallus leaned back. All of a sudden, everyone inside The Ragged Flagon had stopped talking and was now listening.  
Dralsi had been a thief years ago, Gallus had only known her for a while until she had left. Only a few had known the real reason, though, which was that she had left to serve Nocturnal. From what Gallus remembered, everyone had respected and liked Dralsi.  
While still admiring Dralsi's skills and the fact that she had had a daughter, Gallus suddenly remembered that she was dead now.  
"I'm sorry for your loss," he said gently. "We will of course hold a burial and honour her spirit."  
"Thank you," Karliah said, obviously uncomfortable with everyone listening.  
Gallus turned around and gave Gaia a meaningful look.  
The older woman understood and shooed the listening guild members away.  
"Let the girl grieve," she told them.  
As soon as they were alone, Karliah looked up at Gallus.  
"Thank you," she said with her soft voice.  
"How did she ... if I may ask, how did she die?" Gallus asked carefully. The girl seemed to be hurt a lot.  
"She died ... due to an ambush on the Twilight Sepulcher."  
For a moment, Gallus' breath was caught. Had she really just said -  
"I'm sorry, I figured ... as the Guildmaster you would know ..."  
"I know," Gallus quickly told the young elf. "I was just surprised - but of course you would know. You're Barenziah's granddaughter, that means you're also the granddaughter of Nightingale - wow."  
"You know about the history of a few Dunmer?" Karliah said and her mouth twitched. "I'm genuinely impressed."  
"I know about the history of the thieves guild and Queen Barenziah," Gallus said. "As she once was one of us."  
"I don't want to be treated any differently," Karliah said and finally looked up at the Guildmaster.  
Something inside her purple iris made him totally drawn to them. He had never seen anyone with purple eyes before. Most Dunmer he knew had red eyes.  
"Of course not," he said.  
"I can handle myself," Karliah went on. "I may be young but I think we both agree that my ancestors have passed their skills to me. I want my own job as soon as possible."  
"How bold," Gallus said but he smiled. "I will introduce you to your new partner soon, then. He has recently lost his old partner. He'll be thrilled to team up with you."

And so Gallus had introduced Karliah to Mercer Frey as his new partner.  
Mercer had been sceptical at the beginning, as he had of course witnessed what everyone else thought of the Dark Elf.  
"Is she any good?" he asked. "I trust your instincts, Gallus, but she is so young."  
"If you trust my instincts, then why are you questioning my decision?" Gallus countered and Mercer shrugged. "You'll see yourself how good she is. Tonight she'll accompany you and I don't want to hear another word now."  
"Understood," Mercer replied and stepped away.  
And Gallus walked over to his new protégé, who was again busy with archery training. She didn't need it but Gallus knew she liked it. And that she was very good.  
He felt like a creep as he was standing behind her and watching her but as he moved closer, Karliah spoke up.  
"You're a bad sneak, whoever it is."  
Gallus chuckled and Karliah turned around. Her eyes went wide.  
"Oh my - I'm so sorry, Gallus. I didn't mean to -"  
"It's okay, Karliah. You're right, I'm a bad sneak indeed."  
"No, you're not. I just ha- have very good ears," Karliah stuttered and brought a hand up to her pointy ears.  
Gallus smiled.  
"You don't need to apologise to me. I know how to handle a little teasing."  
Karliah looked up at him again, her purple eyes filled with concern.  
"Don't worry. I've heard much worse than that, Karliah."

Gallus felt oddly comfortable in her presence and he felt uneasy when he wasn't with her.  
Whenever Mercer and Karliah were gone, he felt like exploding with worry any moment. What if he had been wrong and Karliah died during a job?  
No, she wouldn't die. She was fast and agile. Definitely more than Mercer was. And she was small. Small people usually were more successful as thieves, as they could move more quieter and hide better. And she was a descent of Drayven Indoril, the Nightingale. She had to be a natural.  
Yet he felt uneasy.

It took him a while to realise that he was crazy about her but after he did, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

Gallus had been right.  
Karliah was a natural.  
After only one month she had made more money than he had made in his first year. He admired her more and more the closer he got to her and the more he got to know of her.  
Soon he noticed that she was more than a quiet thief - she was a very funny woman, too.  
It started when she realised that the guild had finally accepted her. That was after half a year with Karliah in the guild. Gaia and Tonilia, the only women in the guild, asked her to have lunch with them and Karliah agreed. It had been a sign of the women that they accepted the Dunmer as friend and colleague.  
And finally Karliah dared to open up a bit more, about herself, her past and her plans.  
Gallus found out that she had lived in Windhelm, at the Grey Quarter, with her father. She had never met her grandmother, Queen Barenziah, and her mother had rarely been there. As her father had died she had lived with a Dunmer family in Windhelm, her mother had sent her money through a courier every week but she had only shown up once a year - at Karliah's birthday.  
Then she had stopped receiving money. Karliah had started looking for her mother and thus lived at the streets of Riften for a few months until Delvin had found her breaking into the thieves guild.  
Gallus also learned that Karliah had originally wanted to join the guild - She simply had not known how to win their attention, so she had broken inside.  
She told him one day, him alone.  
"I didn't want to steal anything, really. I wanted to talk to you, Gallus. Ask you if you'd need someone like me in the guild," she told him and Gallus believed her.  
Mercer didn't. Even though he got close to her through their jobs and he praised her highly, he still thought that Karliah was pretending.  
He highly doubted that she had grown up in Skyrim, accused her of lying about never being to Morrowind and that her mother had been _the_ Dralsi Indoril. The known thief and daughter of Queen Barenziah! No, according to him, Karliah was a simple Dunmer who had been unlucky while sneaking through the Ratway.  
But Gallus believed her. If Karliah had wanted to stay hidden, she would have. Karliah was the best, after half a year he was sure about that.  
"She has enchanted you," Mercer told him one day. "That's why you keep defending her. But she's not the one you want to see. Believe me, one day she'll stab you in the back."  
The words had hit him hard but Gallus did not show it. Mercer was simply talking, he told himself. He could see that his friend liked the girl, even admired her. He suspected him to be jealous that Karliah had chosen Gallus as her contact person when she needed someone to talk to.

Karliah didn't talk very often. She preferred being quiet, even after making friends. Gaia, Tonilia, Delvin and Gallus soon saw her as the woman she was, a talented thief with a good sense of dark (elf) humour.  
Some of the guild members still hadn't accept her, which was mostly because Mercer told them not to. Mercer himself didn't show any hostility towards the Dunmer and denied that he was agitating the other members against Karliah, whenever Gallus asked him about it.  
"I don't like her," was his answer everytime, "but why should I do anything awful like that? She's my partner and a very talented thief, Gallus. I don't know why the others won't accept her in the guild."  
Gallus knew better. He knew that Mercer maybe liked her too much. And that made him uncomfortable.

One day Gallus was determined to tell Karliah what he felt. After some thinking, he had decided that the feelings were mutual. Karliah treated him differently than the others, seeked his closeness but talked to him shyly, was nervous around him and couldn't look him in the eye.  
He looked into Karliah's room carefully. The girls slept inside and he didn't want to surprise them while changing clothes.  
But gladly no one but Karliah was inside. And she was only reading on her bed, so he entered.  
"Hello, Karliah," he said. "Can I come in?"  
"You already are," Karliah said with a small smile and put her book away, sitting up slowly. Gallus smiled back.  
"You're right. Can I sit down?"  
Karliah pointed on the chair next to the table. "Sure."  
Gallus sat down. "What are you reading?" he asked and Karliah handed her book to him. "The Biography of Barenziah? Don't you have enough informations about your ancestors yet?"  
"It's very interesting," Karliah replied. "I've read all three volumes for about twenty times, still hoping to notice new infos everytime I read it. I want to find out more about Drayven."  
"Your grandfather?" Gallus asked and Karliah nodded. "Then this is the wrong book, I guess," Gallus pointed out. "You should read a book about the Nightingales."  
"No matter where I looked, I couldn't find anything about them," Karliah said quietly. "It seems as the Gods don't want me to know anything concerning them."  
"I know where to find the books," Gallus said and reached out for Karliah's hand. "Do you want to accompany me when getting them?"  
Karliah smiled nervously as she took the Guildmaster's hand.  
"I would love to."  
He pulled her up. "Do you trust me?"  
If a Dark Elf could blush, Karliah's face would have been dark red.  
"Yes, always," she whispered.


End file.
